Yemeni A310 Crashes Off of Comorros Islands

This particular aircraft A310, was banned from French airspace. In fact, the passengers disembarked from an aircraft after departing France that was "allowed" to use French airspace. They then boarded this doomed flight. Winds are now being reported as gusting to 90 mph, earlier I had read they were in the realm of 39 mph....I'll stick with the 39 or so numbers...Still bad business to try and land in--not impossible, but certainly very tricky and dependent upon the skills of the crew and the absolute direction of these winds.

Reportedly, one 5 year old child survivor has been rescued and less than a handful of bodies located from a passing helicopter. ...lakotahope

JOHANNESBURG/SANAA - A five year-old child was being brought ashore Tuesday, after surviving a Yemen Airways plane crash near the Comoros Islands, officials said.

Abdillah Mougni, secretary-general of Comoros republic’s transport ministry, said the child, whose gender he did not know, was being brought to shore by boat.

Mougni also said only one body had been recovered from the water so far, although three bodies had been seen floating in the water from helicopters.

The Comoros islands are located between Madagascar and Mozambique, off south-eastern Africa.

The Airbus A310, which was carrying 153 people including 11 crew members, crashed between 15 and 20 km off the north of Grande Comore island early Tuesday morning. It had been scheduled to land at Moroni airport.

The flight had originated in Paris, with stops in Marseille, the Yemeni capital Sanaa and Djibouti.

Sixty-six of the passengers were French. The rest were believed to be mostly Comorans.

Comoran rescue vessels reached the site of the crash around noon and divers were preparing to search the water for the plane after pieces of wreckage were seen floating in the water, Mougni said.

Two French navy vessels and military transport planes are also on their way to the area.

One witness said she saw flames coming from the aircraft before it crashed, according to Comoran government spokesman Abdourahim Said Bacar.

The witness was a villager in a seaside village that the plane overflew after it failed in its first attempt to land because of gusting winds.

The crash is the second tragedy involving an Airbus plane in less than a month. On June 1, an Air France Airbus A330 travelling from Brazil to France plunged into the Atlantic with 228 people aboard. No survivors were found.

Between Paris and Yemen, the passengers travelled in an Airbus A330. In Yemen, they changed planes to the Airbus A310-300.

Fishermen saw the plane go down off the coast shortly after flight controllers lost contact with it around 1:51 a.m. (2351 GMT Monday), shortly before it was scheduled to land.

Airbus officials in France reported that the plane was 19 years old and in service to Yemenia since 1999. It had logged almost 52,000 flight hours and about 17,300 flights.

French Junior Minister for Transport Dominique Bussereau told i-tele TV news that French civil aviation authorities had kept Yemenia Airways under close surveillance and had detected “very many defects” on the aircraft.

The plane “disappeared from French skies after these defects were found,” Bussereau said.

The passengers were believed to be mostly Comorans living in France who were returning home for holidays or for weddings, known in Comoros as the “Jeviens” (I come).

Bordron said that on the provisional passenger list most of the names were “Comoran-sounding”.

France has sent two navy vessels, transport military planes and medical and other personnel, including divers, to assist the rescue from the neighbouring French department of Reunion and Mayotte, a Comoran island that is still part of France.

Meanwhile, investigation teams from Yemen Airways and the Yemen aviation authority plan to fly to Moroni today.

Joint Strike Fighter For Sale

Is Gates and the Obama White House just pushing this plane just to be able to sell it and make money for the economy? Are they doing this at the expense and limited production of the world's greatest fighter aircraft today, Generation 5, F22 Raptor.

The pentagon is advertising the F35 to fill three major roles for the Air Force, strike, bombing and all weather. The Marines want S/VTOL abilities that will replace their Harriers. And the Navy wants an aircraft that can withstand the punishing atmosphere of carrier life.

We are jointly producing this aircraft with other countries and maybe we are pushing this aircraft just to keep these countries on the team. We wouldn't want them to get cold feet and bail on the largest aircraft Deal in History--$200 Billion plus.

According to the Pentagon, this plane does everything except orbit the earth. The U.S. is using this aircraft as a platform to sell to everyone who wants it...It will displace the F22 Raptor,(expensive), but I wonder will it truly be ALL things for ALL Missions??? Nothing has worked this way before.... LAKOTAHOPE
DOES HAVE GREAT TOYS, 1 ITEM WORTH MENTIONING:
A distributed-aperture-infrared sensor system will provide full spherical infrared coverage around the aircraft. In addition to providing warnings of missile launches, information from the system can be displayed on the pilot’s helmet visor, permitting the pilot to see “through” the airplane’s structure in all directions, and eliminating the need for night-vision goggles. This system will dramatically increase the ability of the F-35 to conduct any type of mission at night.
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JSF F 35 --globalsecurity.org
"For much of the free world’s military forces, the F-35 represents the future- a new family of affordable, stealthy combat aircraft designed to meet the twenty-first-century requirements of the US Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps, as well as the United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force and Royal Navy. The program is truly international in its scope and participation: Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey, Canada, Denmark, Australia, and Norway recently joined the F-35’s system development and demonstration (SDD) phase. All SDD partners will be active in the F-35’s development process and stand to gain economically from the program.The program’s objective is to develop and deploy a technically superior and affordable fleet of aircraft that support the warfighter in performing a wide range of missions in a variety of theaters. The single-seat, single-engine aircraft is being designed to be self-sufficient or part of a multisystem and multiservice operation, and to rapidly transition between air-to-surface and air-to-air missions while still airborne. To achieve its mission, the JSF will incorporate low observable technologies, defensive avionics, advanced onboard and offboard sensor fusion, and internal and external weapons. Plans call for the F-35 to be the world's premier strike aircraft through 2040. It will provide air- to-air capability second only to the F-22 air superiority fighter. The plane will allow the Air Force forces to field an almost all-stealth fighter force by 2025. The Navy and Marine variants will be the first deployment of an "all-aspect" stealth airplane." ....globalsecurity.org

Increased Ramp Threats From TSA

These types of intrusions are just stepping stones to more thorough scrutiny by the U.S. Government into the private lives of its citizens. The government cannot stop with this approach to customs interdiction. It will develop and implement more stringent rules regarding private pilots flying personal aircraft in the continental U.S.A. Everything passed down from lawmakers is indeed a stepping stone towards whatever lofty goal is envisioned by policy makers. Are we safer? Is America safer? It seems these new rules and regulations affect only law abiding U.S. pilots and citizens. No one illegal is going to land and risk interdiction by armed TSA agents or land at an airport that requires special background checks along with the requisite badge of approval. So Who Is This Really For Again??? ...... lakotahope

Customs steps up aircraft screening near U.S.-Mexico border

By AOPA ePublishing Staff

In the wake of a Long Beach, Calif., incident in which a pilot and his passengers were ramp checked at gunpoint by local law enforcement officers and Customs and Border Protection officials, AOPA has reached out to customs to prevent a repeat.

“Having weapons drawn at the ready without just cause is extreme,” said AOPA Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Craig Spence. “Customs has indicated that this type of ramp check is atypical and that pilots do not need to worry about similar forceful inspections.”

Pilots could, however, notice an increase in routine ramp checks at airports along the southwestern U.S. border. The Obama administration released a new National Southwest Border Counternarcotics Strategy June 15 to reduce drug trafficking and the flow of cash and weapons across the border. The initiative applies to air, maritime, and ground transportation.

AOPA also is working with customs to ensure that general aviation passenger manifests collected through its Electronic Advance Passenger Information System (eAPIS) are not used beyond the intended scope of terrorist watch list matching.

“AOPA will continue to work with the Department of Homeland Security and customs to find practical and workable alternatives to enhance security that do not unduly restrict GA operations,” Spence said. “In the meantime, we encourage pilots to continue with their planned international flights.”

Aviation Humor from "Funny2.com"

Found this site and it has enough funny stuff to keep one busy for a long while....Early Sunday is a time to relax..More serious stuff later...........lakotahope
In Flight Humor
Here are some real examples of humor on airplanes that have been heard or reported

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While showing the use of the oxygen mask: "If you are seated next to a child or someone acting like one, please assist them in putting on the breathing apparatus. (thanks to Addison St. Onge-May)

A Southwest flight attendant said this as the door was opened: "OK, now I'm going to tell you exactly what my Mama told me on my 18th birthday. GET OUTTA HERE." (thanks to Fred)

"Hello Everyone, we have a first time flyer on board today - and it is also their 50th birthday!" After everybody cheers, the flight attendant continues, "Will everyone please wish the captain a Happy Birthday!?"

The pilot dropped out of the fog at Spokane Washington and discovered he was half way down the runway and slammed the plane down onto the ground. The flight attendant announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, we just dropped into Spokane."

"Welcome to Las Vegas, Nevada. We'd like to thank you for flying Southwest Airlines, and on behalf of the flight deck we'd also like to extend a very special and very happy 101st Birthday to a gentleman seated near the front of the aircraft." *scattered applause* "So, if you happen to see the Captain on the way out, mind his walker, shake his hand, and wish him well with another 100 years working here at Southwest Airlines."

"If you smoke, please wait until you arrive at a designated smoking area to light up, which (in California) would be outside."

"Please use caution when opening the overhead compartments as shift happens!"

After taking off, the pilot got on the speaker and said, "Bear with me folks, this is my first time."

From a Southwest Airlines employee: "There may be 50 ways to leave your lover, but there are only 4 ways out of this airplane."

Jets Plagued By Ice Over Problems

From correspondents in Paris | June 20, 2009

Article from: Agence France-Presse

AIR France Airbus jets experienced at least nine incidents in which airspeed probes iced over in the past year, says an internal company report.

A probe into the June 1 crash of AF 447, in which an A330 jet flying from Rio to Paris plunged into the Atlantic with the loss of all 228 people on board, has focused on contradictory readings from its "pitot" speed probes.

French aviation investigators, as well as the companies Airbus and Air France, have each said there is no firm evidence so far linking speed monitors and the crash.

Nevertheless, Air France has upgraded all sensors on its long-haul fleet as a precaution after protests from pilots.

In an internal note sent to Air France pilots on Thursday, the company said it informed the planemaker Airbus and Thales, which makes the pitot probes, of eight incidents on A340 jets and one on an A330 over a year-long period.

An earlier report seen by AFP recorded five airspeed probe incidents last year, two of which caused triggered alerts.

The latest report, obtained by AFP on Friday, says the first incident occurred in May 2008, involving temporary loss of speed data, followed by a second in July 2008 and three others in August 2008.
There then followed two operational incidents in September and October 2008, all on A340s.

Airbus and Thales were given a full briefing on the incidents, and asked to resolve the problem, according to the Airbus note.

"Numerous exchanges took place with the technical teams at Airbus," it said.

"No incident of this kind had been signalled previously."

Airbus replied to Air France, saying: "The supposed origin of the incidents was icing over, due to the formation of crystals inside the airspeed probes", according to the report.

"Faced with our insistence on finding a solution, Thales and Airbus (will) carry out studies" on a new generation of probes, the Air France report says.

It said two further operating incidents were recorded at the end of 2008, one on an Airbus A340 and one on an A330.

"Airbus is contacted again several times" and "replies by confirming that it presumes the probes had iced over", Air France said.

According to the report, Airbus wrote to Air France on April 15, 2009, to inform it that tests carried out by Thales on new-generation probes showed a "much better response than the older model" to icy conditions.

In response, Air France asked Thales to accelerate the delivery of speed probes that were to be supplied from May 26, 2009, at a rate of a dozen a week.

French investigators probing the June 1 Air France crash have said the airspeed sensors, or pitot probes, had been feeding inconsistent readings to the cockpit.

Conflicting airspeed data can cause the autopilot to shut down and in extreme cases the plane to

More Answers, Less Supposition

More comments from investigators on the recovered remains of AF 447 and its passengers. Apparently, the intact remains of the passengers indicate they were subjected to extreme conditions such as would be encountered by a breakup in flight. The bodies that were recovered remained largely intact with multiple fractures of legs, pelvis and other major skeletal structures. Also, many were completely stripped of their clothing as would happen when one is exposed to high velocity windspeeds as those encountered at 35,000 feet. Compared to past crashes, these are consistent with a breakup; unlike in a plane that remains intact until impact with the ground or water.

Large pieces of aircraft found with intact bodies of passengers are pointing towards the breakup, but investigators still aren't ruling out an explosion. Because, there were no evident injuries associated with fire doesn't mean that the aircraft didnt' have an explosion in the cargo area where the cabin, crew and passengers, would have been shielded from a blast. .... lakotahope

Investigators Say All Of Plane Will Not Be Recovered

With no direct knowledge of the cause of the Air France Flight 447 in the Atlantic, most speculation revolves around the intense storm system it was entering and the speed sensors on the aircraft. Known as pitot tubes, there are multiple pitot tube sensors located at different places on the front of the aircraft. Redundancy is the name of the game on jets and especially these electric jets. If a system fails, then the backups will pick up the work load. In cases of a failure, the primary master control system will weigh the difference between the suspected failure and its sister systems. After the comparison, it will disregard the errant system failure.

Always a perfect world, but never a perfect solution. With electrical failures occurring and other system meltdowns bringing a domino effect of problems to the pilots, they needed to be at the top of the pyramid when it comes to pilot skill. These guys had tons of experience and the crew was staffed with an extra pilot. Extra pilots are always on these long haul flights to spell the cockpit crew during breaks. At fours hours into the flight, AF 447 sent out emergency signals via computer to its maintenance facility on the ground. This was the last communications from this aircraft. No communication from the pilots.

Airbus is fly by wire and now some Boeing models are out with fly by wire. I haven't heard of any one pilot group dismissing the excellence of either type of aircraft. Sure, with fly by wire, a computer will have the final say of whether any pilot input will be performed--this is to prevent the aircraft from being subjected to forces by a pilot that would hurt the plane. Traditional systems, Boeing, the pilot may put the aircraft into any flight position he desires. His is the final word!

By the time AF 447 ran into critical problems and disappeared, the autopilot system had already disengaged. This could have been opted by the flight management system or by the pilots themselves. Until the black boxes are found, just about everything about this crash will be speculation. Except for the wreckage! The damage to the found pieces and to the recovered remains of the passengers will serve as a tool to help determine the cause of the loss of AF 447 and its 228 souls on board... lakotahope

France Will Continue to Search for Black Boxes

AP

June 9: Brazil's Navy sailors recover debris of the missing Air France Flight 447 from the Atlantic Ocean.

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LE BOURGET, France — France's defense minister says the search for the remains of Air France Flight 447 will go on as long as there is hope of finding the plane's black boxes.

Herve Morin says he met with his Brazilian counterpart at the Paris Air Show and promised that "France is determined to continue the search."

He gave no more details about the search for the plane, which crashed into the sea on May 31 en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris with 228 people aboard.

Morin said Tuesday it was important that both countries agree on the need to keep up the arduous search for the flight data and cockpit voice recorders in the deep waters of the mid-Atlantic.....cnn.com

Customs and Border Protection Justifies Ramp Check

I see images of more heavy handed inspections of aircraft and all persons entering and leaving certain areas of the U.S.A. Over the years we as a nation have been envied for our freedom of movement, but now things are changing. All in the name of national security. Seems to me that only American citizens are really being affected by these tactics. How much liberty and rights that we have always enjoyed as a nation, are we going to surrender to government laws, rules and regulations. ...lakotahope

A spokeswoman for the Washington headquarters of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) says the drawing of weapons in the ramp inspection of an aircraft in Long Beach, Calif., last month was justified but not "normal." Kelly Ivahnenko also told AVweb that general aviation pilots can expect more ramp checks by CBP agents thanks to the newly-instituted Electronic Advance Passenger Information System (eAPIS). She stressed it's unlikely many of the checks will have the level of intensity employed May 22 with Long Beach, Calif., pilot David Perry and his three passengers. Ivahnenko said in an interview on Tuesday that there was a "heightened alert" involved in the Long Beach operation but she also said she could not discuss the circumstances that led to a more aggressive posture than normal by the CBP and local police. She also said that while eAPIS had nothing to do with the Long Beach inspection, information provided through eAPIS could result in more frequent GA inspections. The system, which involves the online filing of flight and passenger information for transborder flights, became mandatory on May 18. In an interview and podcast with AVweb, Perry said he and his passengers were put in unnecessary peril by gun-wielding enforcement officials. Ivahnenko stressed Perry's experience is not what most pilots should expect if they're checked by the CBP. "This I would not classify as common or routine," she said. She said the Long Beach action was justified, even though the search turned up nothing illegal. "While the involvement of more than one law enforcement agency and the heightened alert of the situation were slightly unusual, it is within (CBP's) authority to inspect inbound and outbound travelers, vehicles, planes, cargo, etc.," she told AVweb. She also said that only the Long Beach police officers assisting the operation actually drew weapons and CBP agents kept theirs holstered, something Perry vehemently disputes. "Every one of them had their weapons out," Perry said.

Perry also said that while most of those who surrounded his airplane carried pistols, he saw at least one assault rifle carried by a CBP agent. Ivahnenko said the CBP agents involved are not equipped with assault rifles and the tactical team that does carry them was not in Long Beach that day. Perry adamantly disagrees with Ivahnenko regarding the presence of assault rifles. While Ivahnenko maintains CBP agents did not draw weapons, she said it was their idea that the Long Beach police officers have their guns out. "We are taking responsibility as the lead agency who requested assistance from Long Beach," she said. "That was simply part of the security protocol for that part of the inspection." Perry said he and his passengers were ordered at gunpoint to first put their hands on their heads and then get out of the airplane one by one. They were individually questioned and they and the contents of the plane were searched. Perry said he's considering filing a civil rights action against the CBP and has been told by an attorney that the search may have violated the 4th Amendment of the Constitution that limits search and seizure powers of the government. Ivahnenko said the controversy stirred by the Long Beach inspection may prompt an outreach campaign by the CBP to address concerns being expressed by the general aviation community about the new border-crossing rules.....avweb

Two Passengers on Doomed Flight Linked to Terrorism

Now we are teetering toward the theory that the destruction of Flight 447 as being a possible victim to Muslim terrorists. Some may remember I posted a news message about a bomb threat to an Air France airliner just a few days before this crash. Although, Brazilian authorities searched the "bomb threat plane" meticulously, it left and landed in Paris without incident. This plane flew the same flight plan as AF 447. Now we may have a possible coincidence according to the French that the names listed on the doomed flight were indeed a match to a list of Islamic terrorists. But, coincidences are easy to accept in hard to believe circumstances. We do have the bomb threats on a previous flight and we have two names of passengers that are considered "a threat" to the French Republic.
I wonder if these two names were on the passenger manifest that was held up for the bomb threat flight?. ..... lakotahope

Soon after news of the fatal crash broke, agents working for the DGSE (Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure), were dispatched to Brazil.

A source working for the French security services told Paris weekly L’Express that the link was "highly significant."

France has received numerous threats from Islamic terrorist groups in recent months, especially since French troops were sent to fight in Afghanistan....foxnews

11:46am UK, Wednesday June 10, 2009

Meanwhile, a French nuclear submarine has arrived to sweep the ocean, seeking the signals transmitted by the voice and data recorders from flight AF 447.

"The Emeraude will begin its patrol this morning, in a first search zone measuring 20 nautical miles by 20, that is to say 36 kilometres by 36, which it should cover in a day," said military spokesman Captain Christophe Prazuck.

Brazil's Air Force unloads the body of one of the victims recovered from the sea

"It will change zone each day and no time limit has been set."

The Emeraude is to be joined in the area by the Mistral, a naval command and control vessel equipped with helicopters.

French officials acknowledge the search will not be easy - the black boxes are thought to be in waters up to 3.7 miles deep.

If the Emeraude does locate the signal, the French scientific research vessel Pourquoi Pas will launch a mini-submarine to retrieve the recorders.

A total of 41 bodies have now been hauled up from what one Brazilian navy crewmember said was a "sea of debris" some 700 miles off Brazil's northeast coast.... skynews

Foreign Geese Brought Down Jet in Hudson

We have identified the culprits and now we need to do some more data crunching to figure out how to use this information. Canadian geese brought down an American commercial airliner on January 15, 2009. A flagrant disregard for in flight navigation and ATC instructions for safety in the Terminal area. The geese,two female and one male,were cruising at approximately 2,900 feet when their flight was disrupted by the two engines of the Airbus 320. According to Smithsonian institution scientists, these geese were the vagabond, transient type of goose. Not the local population that inhabit the flight path around the Hudson River. I am so happy this incursion did not involve the local goose.....lakotahope
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On Monday, the eve of a three-day National Transportation Safety Board hearing into the crash, the Smithsonian announced that sophisticated scientific techniques allowed them to conclude that the Flight 1549 birds were Canada geese from Labrador, Canada, and were significantly different from geese in New York City. Museum scientists said molecular study of feathers found in the engines leads them to believe the birds had probably nested in Labrador in the summer of 2008 and migrated to the New York region for the winter. On the day of the crash, Smithsonian wildlife biologist Peter Marra said, the ground was covered with snow, and the flock was probably on a short flight south looking for clear ground or water on which to forage for food.

Canada geese (Branta canadensis) are "essentially flying cows," Marra said, given their unrelenting quest for food.

The migratory birds are among the largest species of bird in North America, with an estimated weight of about 8 pounds each. The determination that the birds were the 8-pound variety and not the 4-pound Brant geese is likely to comfort jet engine designers, since the engines are designed to survive strikes from 4-pound birds.....cnn.com

RECIFE, Brazil (CNN) -- Three more bodies were found Sunday from the crash of an Air France plane off the coast of Brazil nearly a week ago, Brazilian officials said.
A boat from the Brazilian navy picks up debris in the Atlantic on Sunday.

More bodies could be seen and could be recovered within hours, they added.

The bodies of two males were found Saturday. But Brazilian air force and navy officials said it was not possible to identify the sex of the latest three bodies. Asked their condition, the officials declined to describe them, citing good taste and the victims' families.

The bodies, along with hundreds of other items, were found floating in water that was between 6,000 and 8,000 meters (4 to 5 miles) deep.

All the bodies and items recovered are confirmed as being from Air France Flight 447, which vanished over the Atlantic early Monday en route to Paris, France, from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The area where the bodies and crash debris are being found is about 1,100 kilometers (700 miles) from the Brazilian coast.

More Bodies Found

RECIFE, Brazil — Brazil's Navy said Sunday it recovered three more bodies from the ocean where an Air France jet is believed to have crashed in violent weather, bringing the total number of Flight 447 victims plucked from the water to five.

Authorities also say they have spotted an undetermined number of additional bodies from the air and are sending ships to recover them.Navy Capt. Giucemar Tabosa Cardoso made the announcement Sunday from the military search command post in the northeastern Brazilian city of Recife....foxnews 1100 0607 2009

Click here for photos.

Plane's Wing Found

More Debris is Located

Article from: Agence France-Presse

BRAZILIAN search aircraft have spotted seats and part of a plane wing in the Atlantic where an Air France jet went down nearly a week ago, officials said after two bodies and other items were recovered from the area.

"As well as the bodies there are various remains of the aircraft," air force spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Henry Munhoz said. "Plane seats, part of the wing (and) various other items (were) localised," Mr Munhoz said. The two male bodies recovered by the Brazilian navy in the zone earlier today were being taken by ship to Brazil's Fernando de Noronha archipelago, where they would be catalogued and flown to Recife, he said. "Recife will be the final destination for the bodies as well as the debris from the aircraft," Mr Munhoz said. He said that "details of the (personal) items collected will be divulged to the relatives and only to the relatives." The spokesman added that "the state of the bodies will not be divulged."

EAA Oshkosh--Largest General Aviation Event in the World

With over a half a million aviation enthusiasts attending last year, this year's event will be just as large with many new exhibition aircraft showing up for the first time. And to kick off this year's aircraft bonanza...........lakotahope

BIG NEWS--AIRBUS 380 IS COMING
TO OSHKOSH 2009

Take an Airbus A380 cockpit tour! How BIG is it? Length - 239’ 3” Span - 261’ 8” Height - 79’ 7” Empty Weight - 556,000 lbs Max Take Off Weight - 1,300,000 lbs Range - 8,200 NM Fuel Capacity - 81,980 gallons Seating - 525 typical – mixed seating It's official - the Airbus A380 will visit EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2009, providing the first opportunity in North America for the global aviation community and the public to admire the world's largest passenger airliner on static display and in flight.

The Experimental Aircraft Association holds its annual EAA AirVenture Oshkosh air show in an effort to engage people in aviation and help raise awareness. The Wisconsin show, to be held July 27 to Aug. 2, drew about 540,000 last year and is considered the world's largest general aviation event. The Wichita Eagle (Kan.) (6/5)

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For general aviation, Paris not the only show in town: General aviation companies will be scarcer than usual at the venerable Paris Air Show, but AviationWeek blogger Fred George says that's not simply a result of the economic climate. The Paris event, now in its 100th year, appeals to the entire aviation spectrum, resulting in huge traffic jams and throngs of gawkers. Besides the inconvenience for visitors, there is also the issue of cost to exhibitors, which can run upwards of a $1 million for companies coming from outside Europe. AviationWeek.com/Business Aviation Now (6/4)

Bodies of Two Men Found Floating in Ocean

First debris was found and identified as belonging to the missing Airbus. Now the debris found earlier along with the accompanying oil slick belong to the category of "Sea Trash". Brazil jumped the gun and France did warn about this type of response. Now solid proof exists of the missing Airbus 330 and by studying currents, time allowances and other factors, the experts may actually get close to the vicinity of the crash. Presuming they get in a reasonable area to search, the deployment of the nuclear subs and their 'superb electronics', perhaps the black boxes may be found and hopefully removed before their 30 day battery life expires......lakotahope

The Brazilian Air Force has found the bodies of two men floating in the ocean near where investigators believe doomed Air France Flight 447 crashed.

The first bodies from the crash were found early on Saturday morning, spokesman Jorge Amaral told reporters in the north-eastern Brazilian city of Recife.

'This morning at 8:14 a.m., we confirmed the retrieval from the water of pieces and bodies that belonged to the Air France flight,' Amaral said.
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Among the debris retrieved on Saturday was a seat with a serial number that matched the missing flight, a rucksack, and a case with an Air France ticket inside, rescue officials said.

Air France has confirmed that the ticket corresponded to a passenger on board Flight 447.

Brazil's air force has been scouring a swathe of the Atlantic about 680 miles (1,100 km) northeast of Brazil's coast since Monday's crash.

Several Brazilian navy ships have also arrived in the area, but fears have grown that many bodies sank or were devoured by sharks.
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The French accident investigation agency, BEA, found the doomed plane received inconsistent airspeed readings by different instruments as it struggled in a massive thunderstorm on its flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris in the early hours of Monday morning.Arslanian cautioned that it is too early to draw conclusions about the role of Pitot tubes in the crash, saying that 'it does not mean that without replacing the Pitots that the A330 was dangerous.'It also emerged today that the jet had issued 24 system failure messages before it crashed.Fourteen of those messages were sent within the space of one minute, from 3.10am BST to 3.11am BST, a briefing in Paris was told today.
By Peter Allen and Mail Foreign Service

Finally something solid to build an investigation on. Someone that will get a member of their family back.

clipped from www.cnn.com Air France passenger's body found PARIS, France (CNN) -- The bodies of two men, one of whom was confirmed to be a passenger from the Air France plane that is believed to have crashed in the Atlantic Ocean on Monday, were found early Saturday, a Brazilian air force spokesman said. Also found were a backpack and a leather briefcase containing an airplane ticket with a reservation code, which Air France verified belonged to a passenger on the jet, Jorge Amaral said. The Brazilian navy and air force said the backpack contained a laptop, and an oxygen mask also was discovered, the Brazilian navy and air force said. Air force officials announced the news in Recife, Brazil. The items were discovered 420 miles north of the Fernando de Noronha islands, 220 miles (355 kilometers) off the northeast coast of Brazil. It is not clear where the plane crashed, since ocean currents likely caused the bodies and debris to drift in the six days since the crash.

Mystery Crashes

Article states the Pennsylvania crash had no answers. Not true, the uncommanded rudder movement was caused by a servo flipping opposite of pilot inputs and suffered this when it was exposed to extreme cold followed by hot hydraulic fluid. The answer is considerably more complicated....Lakotahope

clipped from www.cnn.com In 1994, U.S. Air Flight 427 crashed in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, after taking off in Chicago, Illinois, en route to West Palm Beach, Florida. While federal officials identified a problem with the rudder but could not explain why the plane suddenly flipped and crashed, not a single clue has revealed why the mechanism failed. All 132 people aboard died. More recently, South African Airways Flight 295, a Boeing 747 en route to Johannesburg from Taiwan in 1987, crashed into the Indian Ocean shortly after the pilot reported smoke in the cabin. While debris that washed up on the shores of Madagascar was tested, the cause of the crash has never been positively established. A number of unsolved plane crashes have remained in the public psyche for years:

Unique Vessel Joins Search for Missing Airliner

Submarines do have very sensitive acoustic abilities. Apparently, they can detect and catalogue a ship's screws from as far away as the United States is to Europe.....lakotahope


A French nuclear submarine is being sent to help find an Air France jet which disappeared over the Atlantic.

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French defence minister Herve Morin said the hunter-killer submarine had surveillance equipment that could help find the plane's flight data recorders.

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A spokesman for Airbus said that a notice had been sent reminding Airbus air crews worldwide what to do when speed indicators give conflicting read-outs.

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Spokesman Justin Dubon said that the inconsistent readings meant that "the air speed of the aircraft was unclear".

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As the search continued on Friday, it was revealed that a wooden pallet and a fuel slick in the vicinity of the plane's last known position were not from the jet.

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The slick was most likely from a passing ship, he said.

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"Following the disappearance of the Air France Airbus A330 between Rio de Janeiro and Paris, the Paris prosecutor's office has opened a judicial inquiry against unnamed persons on charges of manslaughter," a statement said.

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Debris Found in Atlantic--Only Sea Trash

By Peter Allen and Mail Foreign Service

The investigation into downed Air France flight 447 was thrown into chaos today when red-faced investigators admitted that debris found floating in the ocean was not from the doomed jet.

Military investigators had said that they had 'without a doubt' found vital parts of the Airbus A330 in deep ocean 600 miles off the coast of Brazil.

Among the debris was a wooden pallet that they believed had been used to load luggage on to the plane, which disappeared over the Atlantic early Monday morning with 228 people on board.

But today investigators said the wooden pallet and two buoys recovered was not from Flight 447, but just floating waste believed to be from a ship.

Earlier, investigators had also claimed to have spotted a plane seat and a seven-metre piece of fuselage floating in the ocean from search planes thousands of feet up.

They have not yet confirmed if those pieces of debris were from Flight 447 or not.

However with investigators admitting the fuel found floating in the water was not from the plane, speculation that the plane had fallen victim to a terrorist attack was growing again. French investigators said no cause, including a terrorist bomb, had yet been ruled out

French authorities have been saying for several days that we have to be extremely prudent,' Bussereau told France's RTL radio. 'Our planes and naval ships have seen nothing.'He said it is 'bad news' that the Brazilian teams were mistaken. 'We would have preferred that it (the debris) had come from the plane and that we had some information,' he said.

Flying Too Slowly

When I first heard about airspeeds, I believed the investigators and Airbus personnel were discussing too high an airspeed for penetrating bad weather. Above the Design Maneuvering Speed, but stalling? I heard about a phenomenon called a 'high speed' stall. This involved Learjets or some similar corporate jet at high altitudes. Anyone know about this?

clipped from www.dailymail.co.uk Parts of Air France jet found as investigators suggest it was flying too slowly and stalled Airbus is now to issue new advice to all airlines using A330s about optimal speeds during stormy weather after investigators suggested the plane may have stalled mid-air. A high-altitude stall at 35,000ft would explain why the aircraft apparently broke up during appalling weather conditions. Airbus declined to comment but retired pilot Jean Serrat said: ‘If accident investigators are making a recommendation so early, it is because they know very well what happened. The first thing you do when you fly into turbulence is to reduce speed to counter its effects. If you reduce speed too much you stall.’ At 11pm on Sunday, the Airbus 330 was flying through black thunderstorms towering up 50,000 feet above sea-level, as updraft winds battered it at up to 100mph. 14 minutes later, with its systems failing, the plane was breaking apart and dove into the Atlantic ocean with 228 people onboard.

Gun Rights Are Not For All Colleges

Colleges in general are FAR leaning leftist organizations. Fine if you just want to hug bunnies and trees, but if you want to discuss our "God given rights" as appointed us by the Bill of Rights don't go to college without checking first!.... lakotahope
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"The fact is, the topic is so explosive," said Robert Shibley, spokesman for the Foundation for
Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), which tracks discriminatory practices against students involved in conservative issues on campus. They've been dealing with "more and more" complaints about efforts to "squelch gun speech," he said. The latest flareup involves Christine Brashier, who says officials at the Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC) violated her First Amendment right to free speech when they stopped her from posting and distributing fliers advocating for concealed carry on campus, and for a new chapter of Students for
Concealed Carry on Campus (SCCC) at the college. The group has about a dozen chapters on other Pennsylvania campuses, Shibley said. "I genuinely wanted to start discussion on the
topic," Brasier told FOXNews.com this week. " I am not such an avid gun owner as much of the news has made me out to be — I simply believe in liberty and that college is the place for a debate about important issues such as this one." Brashier, 24, who is a freshman at the school, said she worked for the last three years in a law office, and before that, as an assistant manager at a convenience store, which was robbed at gunpoint twice while she worked there.
She is licensed to carry a concealed weapon in Pennsylvania, but school policy prevents her from
carrying it on campus. Most states allow schools to set their own policy on concealed carry laws.
Brashier maintains she was hauled into a meeting with the dean, who told her "that the club would never be approved, that the school did not wish to discuss the topic, and to cease speaking about it as well as destroy the literature."
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But gun rights advocates are wary. Since the Virginia Tech murders in 2007, in which 32 people
were gunned down by a student with a history of mental illness, a line has been drawn between those who feel that licensed gun owners should be allowed to carry concealed weapons on campus, and those who believe prevention and tougher gun laws are the best response to a campus gunman.

In March, Central Connecticut State University student John Wahlberg and two classmates gave a presentation for their communications class on whether the death toll at Virginia Tech might have been smaller if faculty and students had been allowed to carry guns. That night, Wahlberg says, he was called into the campus police department, which already had a list of his registered guns, which were locked away off-campus.

Wahlberg's professor had reported him to security out of "safety" concerns, according to The Recorder, the campus newspaper.

The incident has seemingly given the issue a boost, as CCSU students advocating concealed carry were protesting on campus in April, carrying around empty holsters to make their point.

But just a year earlier, students planning a similar protest at Tarrant County College in Texas were told to leave their empty holsters at home and were restricted to demonstrating in a "free speech zone" on campus. .....foxnews
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In Flight Explosion Ruled Out--White Light Seen By Other Pilots

Reports indicate the plane entered the water relatively intact. It's possible, an airliner's fuel tank exploded off of Long Island over the Atlantic ocean several years ago. The forward section separated from the rest of the plane. The plane, absent cockpit and the accompanying forward section, continued to fly. It even gained altitude mainly due to the resultant loss of weight. This plane was intact for much of the climb and dive sequence. Fireballs were reported in this case. This aircrafts Center Wing Fuel tank ignited due to a suspected short in the wiring that runs into the tank. The aircraft is known as TWA Flight 800 (link to Flight 800 story-- http://www.ntsb.gov/Publictn/2000/aar0003.htm )....lakotahope

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (CNN) -- The Brazilian navy began retrieving debris Thursday from an Air France passenger jet which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean with 228 people onboard as investigators continued to hunt for clues into the cause of the accident.

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A Spanish pilot said he saw an "intense flash" in the area where Flight 447 came down off the coast of Brazil, while a Brazilian minister appeared to rule out a mid-air explosion.

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If true, that would rule out an in-flight explosion as the cause of the crash of Air France Flight 447, Defense Minister Nelson Jobim told reporters.

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"Suddenly, we saw in the distance a strong and intense flash of white light, which followed a descending and vertical trajectory and which broke up in six seconds," the captain wrote.

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Eleven aircraft and five ships are engaged in the search, including airplanes from France and the U.S. Watch as experts question whether recovery is possible »

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Air France had received a bomb threat May 27, days before flight 447 departed. The plane with the bomb threat, departed and landed safely in Paris.

Bomb Theory Remains Alive

As always, the bomb theory is always on the back of everyone's minds, whether we admit to it or not.

Satellite data has already shown that storms were sending 100mph winds straight into the Airbus's path at that time.

Ten minutes later, the plane sent a burst of automatic messages, indicating the autopilot had disengaged, the flight-control computer system had been switched to alternative-power and controls needed to keep the plane stable had been damaged.

Three minutes later, automatic messages warned that two other fundamental systems that monitor air speed, altitude and direction had failed. Then came a cascade of electrical failures in systems that control the main flight computer and wing spoilers.

The last message came at 11.14pm, indicating loss of air pressure and electrical failure. The newspaper said this could mean sudden depressurization, or that the plane was already falling into the ocean.

clipped from www.dailymail.co.uk Officials investigate Argentina bomb threat as pilot claims Air France Flight 447 was blown out of the sky by terrorists Air France received a bomb threat four days before Flight 447 plunged into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Brazil, it emerged yesterday. One theory is that the jet was downed by a mid-air collision, possibly involving a military spy jet or an aircraft piloted by drug-runners. But an unidentified senior long-haul Air France pilot told a French newspaper: 'I have flown these jets for Air France for more than ten years and the chances of an electrical fault seem unfeasible to me. Aviation experts said the vast area over which debris has been found suggested there was an in-flight explosion, but that did not mean a bomb had to be the cause. Details of the messages sent by the plane just before it disappeared were published in a Brazilian newspaper yesterday.

Large Chunks of Air France Jet Found in Atlantic Ocean

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

EVERYTHING HAPPENS DURING THE PENETRATION OF THE "CB"...

Flight 447 disappeared minutes after flying into an extremely dangerous band of storms Sunday night, but what exactly caused its electrical systems and cabin pressure to fail remains a mystery. The "black box" cockpit recorders could be miles below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean.

The burst of automatic messages sent from the jetliner before it disappeared with 228 people on board suggests it probably broke apart in the skies and fell to the ocean in pieces, said an official, who isn't authorized to discuss details of the probe publicly.

The pilot sent a manual signal at 11 p.m. local time saying he was flying through an area of "CBs" — black, electrically charged cumulonimbus clouds that come with violent winds and lightning.

Satellite data has shown that towering thunderheads were sending 100 mph updraft winds into the jet's flight path just then.

Ten minutes later, a cascade of problems began: Automatic messages indicate the autopilot had disengaged, a key computer system had switched to alternative power, and controls needed to keep the plane stable had been damaged. An alarm sounded indicating the deterioration of flight systems.

Three minutes after that, more automatic messages reported the failure of systems to monitor air speed, altitude and direction. Control of the main flight computer and wing spoilers failed as well.

The last automatic message, at 11:14 p.m., indicated loss of cabin pressure and complete electrical failure — catastrophic events in a plane that was likely already plunging toward the ocean.

"This clearly looks like the story of the airplane coming apart," the airline industry official told the AP. "We just don't know why it did, but that is what the investigation will show."

GM Cannot Justify Corporate Jets Now

Well, the article explains it....I feel sorry for all of the lessors that will lose money on this bankruptcy....People see GM and Chrysler shedding 100's of billions of dollars in debt. But someone and not just banks, will lose alot of money to keep these two giants of failure afloat long enough to suck the U.S. citizen of tax dollars.

clipped from www.avweb.com GM Asks Court To Dump Jet Leases One of the first things General Motors did under bankruptcy protection is ask the court to allow it to shed seven business aircraft leases and the lease on the hangar that holds them at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport. "The leases are not necessary or valuable to the debtors' business activities or the sale process," GM is quoted by Bloomberg as saying in filings to the court. Shortly after the widely publicized criticism of GM CEO Rick Wagoner and other car company CEOs for using business jets to travel to Washington, D.C., GM tried to dump the aircraft leases but were legally required to maintain some. The bankruptcy changes all that and it will be the judge's call on whether the leases can be cancelled. The publicity surrounding the Washington trip became a lightning rod for criticism of business aircraft use in general and caused many companies not directly related to the issue to cut or curtail the use of their planes.

Large Piece of Wreckage Found

This aircraft could have suffered a major decompression before plunging to the sea. With this large, 23 foot, section having been found and two distinct debris fields, I wonder how this aircraft could have left such a trail. It's possible the aircraft could have separated at flight level 330 and one section of the aircraft managed to travel much further than the other.

The alarmist view would be that this plane suffered an explosion from a bomb. After another Air France plane was grounded for over an hour for a bomb hoax just days before this flight, I wouldn't doubt it at all. Also, if a lightning bolt had hurt this jet and knocked out electrical power, how could the aircraft communicate with headquarters about the system failures that were occurring. After all, the systems need electricity to operate and transmit via satellite link or radio.

But, airframe failure would not be ruled out due to the violent thunderstorms the Airbus was traveling through when the signals were received.

Does anyone have a clue of their own???

Air France Bomb Threat Before Flight 447 Crash

Just days before the mysterious crash of Air France Flight 447 in the Atlantic Ocean, Brazilian authorities reportedly delayed a similar Air France flight from Buenos Aires to Paris after the airline received a bomb threat over the phone.

Police and officials at Buenos Aires' Ezeiza Airport spent 90 minutes inspecting the threatened plane for explosives on the evening of May 27, but found nothing, according to a Brazilian news report.

The head of France's accident investigation agency also said he is "not optimistic" that rescuers will recover the plane's black boxes, which are probably miles underwater.

Air France Flight 447 vanished Sunday night about four hours into its flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. The reason for the crash remained unclear, with fierce thunderstorms, lightning or a catastrophic combination of causes as possible theories."The nature of the debris, the concentration of the debris ... all combines to prove that the debris from Air France 447 has been found," French military spokesman Christophe Prazuck said Wednesday.Brazilian Defense Minister Nelson Jobim told reporters in Rio that no bodies had been found and there was no signs of life.
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Let's see some current facts: 1) the plane contacted headquarters about faults in its systems; autopilot shutoff, depressurization. 2) No one from the cockpit made any contact with ground control. 3) there are 2 separate debris fields. 4) Flying through an area of intense thunderstorm activity raises several scenarios regarding the plane being disabled. ................
So far, it doesn't seem as if the plane came completely apart at its cruising altitude of 33,000 feet. I don't believe there would only be 2 distinct debris fields. And, remembering KAL007, it was able to continue flying at a much reduced capacity until it impacted the ocean. Of course, after the Soviets shot it down, they did a very thorough job of collecting the pieces, bodies and everything else of importance to hide their complicity.

Officials Declare Debris Belongs to Missing Aircraft

1655 hrs 0602 2009
A debris field in the Atlantic Ocean is wreckage from Air France Flight 447, Brazilian Defense Minister Nelson Jobim said Tuesday.

Tuesday, debris has turned up along the flight path--oil barrel, airplane seat, life vest, and signs of oil and kerosene. Ships sailing towards the area of debris have yet to arrive-probably by Wednesday.

Brazilian military pilots hunting earlier Tuesday for a missing Air France jet had spotted an airplane seat, an orange buoy and signs of fuel in a part of the Atlantic Ocean with depths of up to three miles. Brazil's Navy said three commercial ships in the area were joining the search and France said it would send a ship capable of deep-water exploration. A U.S. spy plane was also diverted from drug interdiction efforts to help with the effort. (See pictures of the Hudson plane crash.)

It was not until a French commercial vessel arrived on the scene that the debris' origin was confirmed. The planes searched 10,000 square kilometers (3,861 square miles) of ocean throughout the day and will continue to search for more debris overnight, the Brazilian Air Force Said.

The pilots spotted two areas of floating debris — but no signs of life — about 35 miles (60 kilometers) apart, about 410 miles (650 kilometers) beyond the Brazilian archipelago of Fernando de Noronha, near Flight 447's path from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, said Air Force spokesman Jorge Amaral.

"The locations where the objects were found are towards the right of the point where the last signal of the plane was emitted," Amaral said. "That suggests that it might have tried to make a turn, maybe to return to Fernando de Noronha, but that is just a hypothesis."

If no survivors are found, it would be the world's worst civil aviation disaster since the November 2001 crash of an American Airlines jetliner in the New York City borough of Queens that killed 265 people.
cbs,time,msnbc

Airbus Still Missing

PARIS, France (CNN) -- The chances of finding any survivors from an Air France passenger jet that disappeared over the Atlantic were "very low," French President Nicolas Sarkozy admitted Monday.

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Air France said 80 Brazilians and 73 French citizens were on the missing flight, CNN affiliate TV Globo reported.

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The plane had reported a problem with the electrical system, "but the specialists refuse for the moment to express themselves about any possibility," Sarkozy said.

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The jet had also sent out a warning it had lost pressure, the Brazilian Air Force said. Watch aviation expert describe possible scenarios »

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Its crew was composed of three pilots and nine cabin crew members, including a captain who has logged 11,000 hours in flight. Some 1,700 of those hours were on the A330 and A340. Of the two co-pilots, one has 3,000 hours of flying experience and the other 6,600 hours. The aircraft has flown 18,870 hours.

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One of the statements made about a loss of pressure, reminds me of a Turkish flight that lost a cargo door. This resulted in a catastrophic cabin pressure loss that collapsed part of the cabin floor, pulling out several passengers still attached to their seats. Worse, it also severed hydraulic systems that controlled the aircraft wing surfaces. This Turkish airliner plowed into the ground at over 500 mph just outside of Paris.
Loss of cabin pressure--bomb??? Too soon to speculate....lakotahope

Electric Jet Missing

Officials said the Airbus A330-200 sent automated messages of electrical failure and pressure loss as it hit turbulence, vanishing from the radar early in its flight from Rio de Janeiro to Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. The loss of a relatively new model of one of the aviation sector's most reliable and state-of-the-art aircraft has stunned analysts who say it would take extremely violent weather to bring down such a large jet.

Time line

2230 GMT Sunday Flight AF447 takes off from Rio's Airport do Galeao
0133 GMT Monday Plane makes last contact with Brazilian air traffic control
0148 GMT Plane disappears from radar
0220 GMT Plane fails to make scheduled radio contact
0530 GMT Brazilian Air Force launches search
0910 GMT Plane fails to make scheduled landing in Paris
Source: Brazilian Air Force

Jean-Christophe Rufin, France's ambassador in the west African country of Senegal, told French iTele that aircraft had also taken off from there to search for the missing Airbus.

Brazil's air force said that when the plane left its radar area at 0148 GMT it had been flying normally at an altitude of 35,000 feet and at 453 km per hour. It failed to make contact at the next attempt half an hour later at 0220.

An air traffic controller at ASECNA in Dakar, which covers Francophone Africa, said they did not take control of AF 447.

The plane was an Airbus 330-200 powered with General Electric engines. If the plane is confirmed to have crashed, it would be the first time an A330 has been lost during an operational airline flight.

Air France lost an operational jet in 2000, Concorde, which ultimately ended in Concorde's demise.

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This aircraft is a very safe aircraft having only one previous fatal accident in 1994. Weather conditions have emerged as a leading suspect in the assumed loss of an Air France Airbus A330-200 that disappeared off the coast of Brazil last night.

CNN, Reuters,FlightGlobal